# Measures of Wages

This part of the replciation package imports wages, minumum wages, GDP, VA and converts them to USD and applies different deflators. It also constructs value added per employee, GDP per capita and makes emplyoment weighted wages base on skill-level by sector (manufacturing or total). For sources, please consult the general sources file.


## Remarks on seperate constructions for some countries

-   For Switzerland, we do not have data in our main sources so we construct it from Swiss government data directly.

-   The OECD is our main source for minimum wages. Some, often important, countries did not have a minimum wage for the entirety of the observation period from 1995 to 2011. We use proxies to infer 
    them instead:
    - United States: Did have a minimum wage, but given the sometimes significant differences between state and the federal minimum wage, we construct a weighted countrywide minimum wage.
    - Great Britain: We use bargaining agreements form wage councils until 1993, Gratiously provided by Dickens, Manchin & Manning. We share the data in reduced form.
    - Germany: Had only legally binding general employment contracts until the 2015 intorduction fo the federal minimum wage. We use an index for these and calculate backwards based on 2015. We Thanks 
        Sabine Lenz and Thomas Körner for providing data back to 1980. See sources for more information. 
    - Ireland: Did not have a minimum wage before 2000, but legally binding payraises agreed to by unions, government and emplyoer organizations allow us to calculate backwards.


## Files in order of execution

-   value_added_swiss.do | loads VA and employment data for Switzerland
-   import_swiss_data.do | loads compensation and skill-level data for Switzerland, as well as a ppi and exchange rate
-   interest_rates.do | loads OECD and IMF interest rates for countries
-   load_data_EUklems.do | loads wage, employment and VA data by sector and skill-level. EUklems serves as stopgap where WIOD is not present
-   load_data_WIOD.do | loads  wage, employment and VA data by sector and skill-level. Our main source.
-   load_GDP.do | loads UNstats data on nominal and real GDP and population
-   load_exchange_rates.do | loads exchange rates from UNstats
-   merge_all_data_wages.do | combines everything constructed up to this point and generates sector level where still missing.
-   cleaning_and_adjustment_wages.do | fixes errors and missing observations, harmonizes currencies etc.
-   predicted_vars.do | uses AR to predict future values of ourt main variables.

-   Minimum_wages
    -   import_exchange_xeu_iep.do | loads exchnage rate for ireland to the common currency unit of the EU
    -   reduce_UK_minwage.do | As we can not share the full data here, we include the file we use to bring it into the form we use. Does nothing unless original data is placed.
    -   construct_minimumwages_GER_US_UK_IE.do | 
    -   import_minimumwage.do | loads OECD minimum wages, fixes errors and merges in the seperately constructed minimum wages.
    -   Min_wage_conversion.do | converts to horuly what is not yet and does ppi adjustment for minimum wages.
